Children's Guns Washington DC

Local resource for children's guns in Washington. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to toy guns, children's paintball guns, air guns, and gun holsters, as well as advice and content on hunting.

3 Great Choices for Your Child's First Firearm

When introducing a kid to hunting, one of the most important elements to ensuring their success and enjoyment is providing them with the proper equipment - specifically the gun that they use. At a minimum, the child should be able to handle the gun safely, shoulder it properly, and of course shoot it without taking off a shoulder or knocking them down! The last thing you want to do is start a kid out with them too much gun or a gun that doesn't fit properly and cause them to become "gun shy."

Fortunately for young hunters today, there are plenty of options when it comes to choosing the right gun. With the continued push to get more youth involved in hunting and the outdoors, most all of the big firearm manufacturers now produce a variety of youth model shotguns and rifles. In fact, there are way too many options to cover in one article, or to recommend just one or two for all youth hunters. Which firearm is right for your youth hunter is really dependent on his/her size, build, shooting ability and what he/she will be hunting (not to mention mom and dad's budget!). The purpose of this article is to simply take a look at three great youth firearms, each with their own unique qualities and purpose.

Keystone Arms Crickett .22LR When it came time to buy my son his first real firearm (I'm not counting the Daisy Buck BB gun), I was concerned about finding one that would fit his small size and limited arm strength. He just didn't have the muscle to hold up a small shotgun or full-sized .22LR. Then, one day while browsing the gun case of a local sporting goods store, I came across the ".22 Crickett" produced by Keystone Arms. At just 30 inches long and weighing in at a mere 2.5 pounds, I knew right away it would be the perfect beginner's gun. My son, Dakota, could easily lift and shoulder the gun, and after mounting a nice little 4X scope on top, it became a perfect can plinker and squirrel assassin.

The small size of the Keystone Arms .22 Crickett made it the perfect first firearm for the author's son. Just mount a good scope on top and you have the perfect youth squirrel hunting rig.

Knowing that the Crickett is designed for the youngest of shooters, Keystone Arms added some great safety features. The gun is a single-shot bolt action that must be manually cocked, so just loading a shell in the gun doesn't ready it for firing. In addition to manually cocking, the Crickett includes a feature that I haven't seen before on any other firearm - a keyed safety at the bottom of the stock that allows you to "lock" the gun, so that it cannot be loaded and fired. This is a great feature when storing the gun to prevent a kid from getting the gun out and attempting to load it unsupervised.

The .22 Crickett has a keyed lock built into the stock that keeps a child from loading and firing the gun unsupervised.

Overall, the Crickett proved to be the perfect first rifle for my young son. As mentioned earlier, its small size made it easy for him to ha...